How to create a loadscreen from start to finish.

Loadscreen tutorial by arachnofang [email=arachnofang@hotmail.co.uk]arachnofang@hotmail.co.uk[/email]

(If possible, print this tutorial)

I would like to thank Maddog6767 for staying the distance (almost 5 hours) on Xfire and talking me through
getting the the loadscreen to work, without his help I would not have been able to get it to work. Thanx M8!

Also! I would like to thank DadofAzz for beta testing this tutorial for me, Thanx also M8!

Without these two doing what they did this tutorial would not have been possible, so a lot of credit to them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Creating a loadscreen picture
2. Read only files
3. Creating your loadscreen in Asset Manager
4. Create a zip file
5. Creating .csv files
6. Creating your \'load.ff\' file
7. Last of all
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLEASE NOTE! When ever you see \'yourmapname\' you MUST change it to the name of your map! EG: If the name of your map is 'mp_berlin' then all instances of \'mp_yourmapname\' should be changed to \'mp_berlin\'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.loadscreen picture
--------------------

There are a number of ways to create your loadscreen pic, but for me it was easier to load my map in w@w
and once i was satisfied with the picture on the screen i pressed f12. The other problem you get with your
loadscreen is it becomes stretched when loaded by w@w, so! we are going to fix that as well.

1.  Open Photoshop and load your picture.
2.  Re-size it to 800 x 1024.
3.  Now go to the menu and select \'file>new\'
4.  Re-size it to 1024 x 1024 and make the background color \'black\'
5.  Now position your loadscreen picture dead centre on the back ground pic.
6.  Now go to the menu and select \'file>mode>8 bits/channel.
7.  Now save as \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname.tga\'.
8.  When the Targa options box appears, select \'24 bit/pixel\'.
9.  Save your picture in \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\raw\\images\'.

And thats the picture conversion complete.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Read only
------------

Go to \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\source_data\' and right click every file, go to
properties and if the read only box has got a tick in it get rid of it, now click \'apply and close.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Asset Manager
----------------

1.  Load \'Launcher>Asset manager\'
2.  Go to \'File open\' Source_data\' and load the file \'levels.gdt.
3.  You should see two file names appear \'mp_unit_test\' and \'sp_unit_test\' select \'sp_unit_test\' and click
    on \'delete entry\'
4.  With \'mp_unit_test\' highlighted, click on \'rename entry\'and rename it to \'mp_yourmapname\'
5.  On the right you will see some boxes this is what you put in them.

    bspname                       = mp_yourmapname
    victory backdrop material = $default
    defeat backdrop material = defeat
    mp level load material     = loadscreen_mp_yourmapname

6.  Now go to \'file>save\' go to \'source_data\' and save as \'mp_yourmapname\'

7.  In the scroll down menu in \'asset manager\' scroll down till you find \'material\' click on \'new entry\' and
    highlight \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname\'.

8.  Now change the settings on the right to..........

    Material type = 2d
    surface type  = none
    color map, go to \'raw/images\' and lOad your picture, \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname.tga\'
    \'no tile\' - \'nomip bilinear\' and put a tick in \'nopicmip\'

9.  Now hit f10 and if you have done everything right the text in the black    box will look like the following

    Converting 1 assets, reason: \'asset out of date\'
    Converting \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname\' (material 2 of 1)...
    Converting 1 assets, reason: \'asset out of date\'
    Converting \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname\' (material 2 of 1)...

    Conversion done. Hit key to continue.

    You should now have a file in \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\raw\\images\' called
    \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname.iwi\'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Creating your zip file
-------------------------

1.  Go to your desktop and make a new folder called \'images\'
2.  Go to \'raw/images\' and copy the file \'loadscreen_mp_yourmapname.iwi\' into the images folder on your desktop.
3.  Now right click the \'images\' folder and select add to archive,

    If you use winrar
    -----------------

    When loaded, change \'archive format\' to \'zip\' and change the name \'desktop.zip\' to \'mp_yourmapname.iwd\'
    then click \'ok\'

    If you use winzip
    -----------------

    When loaded, where it says \'add to archive\' delete everything in the box and type in \'mp_yourmapname.iwd\'
    then click \'add\'.

4.  You should now have a file on your desktop called \'mp_yourmapname.iwd\'.
5.  Now copy the file \'mp_yourmapname.iwd\' on your desktop to..............

    Documents and Settings\\\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Activision\\CoDWaW\\usermaps\\yourmapname

    In other words, if \'yourmapname\' was \'mp_berlin\', go to..............

    Documents and Settings\\\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Activision\\CoDWaW\\usermaps\\mp_berlin

    and copy the file in to that folder.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Creating .csv files
----------------------

Right then! Before we create the load.ff file we need to create a couple of .csv files and put them in the right
places, the reason for this is to stop any errors when you compile your load.map, I find the best way to do this
is edit an existing file and then just save it under a new name, So! thats what we are going to do!

First file \'mp_yourmapname.csv\'
-------------------------------

1.  Go to \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\raw\\maps\'.
2.  highlight any text file, right click on it and select copy, now right clickin the window and select paste,
    and rename it to \'mp_yourmapname.csv\'.
3.  Double click on your new file and delete everything in it.
4.  Now copy and paste these lines.

    victoryBackdrop,$default
    defeatBackdrop,defeat
    levelBriefing,loadscreen_mp_yourmapname

5.  Now \'save it\'.

Second file \'mp_yourmapname_load.csv\'
-------------------------------------

1.  Go to \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\zone_source\'
2.  highlight any text file, right click on it and select copy, now right clickin the window and select paste,
    and rename it to \'mp_yourmapname_load.csv\'.
3.  Double click on your new file and delete everything in it.
4.  Now copy and paste these lines.

    ignore,code_post_gfx_mp
    ignore,common_mp
    ui_map,maps/mp_yourmapname.csv

5.  Now \'save it\'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Creating a \'load.ff\' file
----------------------------

1.  Load \'launcher\'.
2.  When loaded, go to 'create map' and type \'mp_yourmapname_load\' click ok.
3.  Now load radient, go to the menu and select \'mp_yourmapname_load\' once loaded save it as \'mp_yourmapname_load\' then close \'radient\'.
4.  The only box that should be ticked is \'build fastfiles\'.
5.  Now select \'mp_yourmapname_load\' from the list.
6.  Click on \'compile level\'.
7.  Close launcher.
8.  If it hasn\'t copied the file \'mp_yourmapname_load.ff\' automatically to.........
    Documents and Settings\\\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Activision\\CoDWaW\\usermaps\\mp_yourmapname
    go to \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\usermaps\\mp_yourmapname' and you should find a file
    called \'mp_yourmapname_load.ff\' in there.
9.  Now copy \'mp_yourmapname_load.ff\' to........
    Documents and Settings\\\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Activision\\CoDWaW\\usermaps\\mp_yourmapname
10. In there you should now have four files,

    Localised_mp_yourmapname.ff
    mp_yourmapname.ff
    mp_yourmapname_load.ff
    mp_yourmapname.iwd

11. The last thing to do is to edit your zone file.
12. Go to \'C:\\Program Files\\Activision\\Call of Duty - World at War\\zone_source\'
13. Find \'mp_yourmapname.csv\' and double click on it.
14. Now add this line, (I usually add it after the rawfile lines).

    material,loadscreen_mp_yourmapname

15. Click on \'save\'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Last of all
--------------

Load your game!

waw>mods>usermaps>launch>start new server>mp_yourmapname>start or which ever way you prefer to do it.

I don\'t know why! But when you select your map from the list, it only shows a chequered box, but when you click
\'start\', your loadscreen will load.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you found this tutorial fairly easy to follow, if you did and you liked it, please tell the next person
about it. If you have any probs or queries please don\'t hesitate to contact me, you can pm me on MOL or email me,
my email is at the top of this tutorial, you can also find me on Xfire. ENJOY!!!

Ian. aka arachnofang

BTW!

Once I had my loadscreen working I found it a lot easier to go back to \'raw/images\' and delete my
\'loadscreen_mp_jungle.iwi\' file, then \'raw/materials\' and delete my \'loadscreen_mp_jungle\' file, and the reason
for this is because! when i tried to do a new loadscreen I kept getting error messages like \'file already exists\'
and when I hit f10 it would tell me that the files were duplicates. So to avoid this! either go back and delete
all the files you created, or better still! Make a new folder somewhere and move them all in to it.